With one side of Thailand ticked off having made our way from Phuket across the Andaman (Jumas see row 14 of spreadsheet) we left Krabi with sore heads and our gift of karaoke (see previous post). Both feeling like total beach (big) bums, we thought we'd break up our trip to the Gulf of Thailand with a short stop in the countries wettest location, Khao Sok National Park. With no mozzie spray and relatively little information on the area, we freestyled our travel and accommodation in the form of a tree house 30ft up.... Needless to say a first for Sai, and camped out for the night in preparation for the next nights stay on a floating bungalow. Little did we know that it would take more than air con to set ourselves up for the next adventure.

We got chatting to the mixed bunch on our excursion and were elated when our group got split and we managed to lose the girl who ended every sentence with a laugh that was not dissimilar to a hyena having its left testicle tickled. On yet another noisy long tail boat we arrived at our charming floating shacks, sorry, bungalows. After a quick dip and canoe we were prepped with our first brief... Jungle trekking and caving. A whole day of it. The first question our guide (Yaya - the Thai Tarzan) asked was 'does everyone have a torch and can everyone swim'.... Sai turned to me with a confused frown as this was sounding less and less like the charming nature trail I had described.
It turned out there were parts of the cave which required underwater swimming in the pitch black. After a 2 hour hike we were passed by another group who had to turn back due to a king cobra guarding the exit of the cave. Yaya laughed (I joined in with a nervous chuckle) and we continued.

The cave was incredible. We bobbed and weaved through the slimey walls covered in huge spiders and waded through waters full of weird fish which resemble my mortal enemy from a previous post. Sai held on to my hand tightly and threatened to assault the boisterous lads who thought it would be a good idea to wake the sleeping bats that covered the roof of the cave (Shireen would have murdered them). An hour or so into the cave and with no turning back it was pointed out that 8 Thai tourists had died when the cave had flooded 5 years ago.... Cheers Yaya.
After an under water dip in the rapids with Sai gripping tightly to my neck and a mysterious creature shuffling off into the darkness (don't worry it was just a frog Sai) we finally reached the exit to the cave with huge sighs of relief.
That night was spent reminiscing on the days activities over a delicious feast of a beautiful fish caught in the lake a some chilled beers. The power got cut around 11pm so we lay there in our bungalow listening to creatures scuttling around us, unable to see what they were. I kept trying to assure Sai that it was merely some lovely butterfly playfully dancing around us but she was not buying it at all. When we booked the accommodation we were told it was a private room but the daylight of the following morning showed us that we in fact shared with 4 frogs, various types of spiders, a number of cockroaches and a UFO. I still insist it was romantic.
We woke early for a dusk safari and then slipped from the group to embark on our epic journey to Ko Samui.